Thursday, July 13, 2017

The Founder

***DISCLAIMER***
The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I
encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion
(or other commenters),
that's fine. To each their own. These reviews
are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just
sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is
not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the
reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being
unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay.
4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews
feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on
Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional
live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching! I don't eat McDonald's very often because I'm trying to lose weight (and I'm poor) but, man, did I want some of their fries after watching this.

The Founder – 4 out of 5

You can lie all you want but we all love McDonald’s in some form or another.I know I’m pretty obsessed with their
McNuggets.Hell, I know people that love
it so much that they eat there several times a week despite numerous claims
that their orders are screwed up every time and the fact they absolutely
despise the people that work there and think they are all idiots who don’t
deserve a living wage—that’s either real love or some sort of chemical
dependence, I don't know. However I will admit, there are some
people who really hate McDonald’s but whether you love them or love to hate them, eat
their food or don’t eat their food their story of their rise to fast food
dominance is an interesting one and that’s one of the many reasons The Founder
is a tremendous movie.

What kind of monster could not love this man?

Look, we've all been there where we're basicallymaking love to our fast food burger.

In 1954, Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) is a traveling salesman
trying to sell mixers to restaurants but isn’t really getting very far.One day, he stumbles upon a restaurant in
California named McDonald’s.Run by two
brothers; Dick (Nick Offerman) and Mac (John Carroll Lynch), the restaurant
proves to be revolutionary as it creates the idea of “fast food.”Gone are the days of waiting for your order
as the meal is served to you seconds after you order it.Kroc sees the potential in this and attempts
to work with the brothers in order to franchise the business and bring
McDonald’s to the entire USA.Hesitantly, the brothers agree but soon learn how driven and deceptive
Kroc can be as a business partner.

"He sent us a picture of himself and he's flipping us off."

Bio-pics are pretty fun movies because they are entertaining
and they give you the illusion that you are learning something about a
historically significant figure.Yes, so
much in them gets changed up and facts get muddied up in order to increase
drama and comply with the basics of storytelling (because real life is never as cool as the
movies) but they’re definitely engaging.The meteoric rise that was McDonald’s and how it came to be thanks to a traveling salesman with drive and just the right amount of callousness so he
can screw people over and not feel sad about it is really an interesting
tale.Not to mention, it’s hard to
imagine that there was once a time when we couldn’t get our food to us in a
matter of seconds nor an era where we didn’t see those golden arches on every
corner of every city.

Now let's get a bio-pic on Mayor McCheese.

The story to The Founder easily sucked me because it was
fascinating to see Kroc’s drive to make McDonald’s a nation-wide success.The push back he got from Dick and Mac easily
created some interesting drama (and some humor too) and the development that
Kroc goes through really made for a feature that was just captivating to
watch.The film so seamlessly changes
Kroc from a down-on-his-luck salesman who is just trying to get a win to a man
who so ruthlessly pulls the rug out from underneath the guys he originally said
he wanted to help and build an empire with.It’s a testament to not just the performance of Keaton but from a
writing and filmmaking perspective.There’s no noticeable transition but rather a natural progression that
alters the character and made a lead that is lovable and charming at the
beginning but sorta loathsome and despicable by the end.It was damn impressive and made the film and
the drama feel very authentic.

After his lost his company, he found new work as Twisty the Clown.

The performances in this film are top notch.I have yet to see a film where Michael Keaton
isn’t completely amazing and this film keeps that streak alive.He’s so impressive as Ray Kroc and, as I’ve
already mentioned, the way that he makes the character transition from someone
you want to see succeed to a person you are disgusted with his actions after he
finally does is tremendous.The film is
also filled with numerous great supporting players in the form of Linda
Cardellini, B.J. Novak, Laura Dern and Patrick Wilson.Each player is doing a fantastic job with
their roles and really makes the whole story feel real and vibrant.

I paused the DVD at just the right time to get this absolutely perfect screencap.

Finally, I was very impressed with the
performances of Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch.Lynch is already a very talented actor who is
very underrated when it concerns his versatility and it was excellent to see
Offerman play a more down-to-earth role and one that isn’t anything like Ron
Swanson.Don’t get me wrong, I love the
character of Ron Swanson (because both it’s a funny character and because my
name really is Ron Swanson) but with an iconic character like Swanson it’s easy
to be typecast and it’s nice to see him spread his wings and perform something
that isn’t overtly funny.It really
shows what he is capable of.

I feel a deep connection to this man--mostly because I am a Ron Swansonand he played the Ron Swanson.

The Founder is a simple but incredibly memorable and
effective bio-pic that does a tremendous job at illustrating the early days of
the fast food giant.The only real
drawback I found for the film was a lack of replay value.As great as the performances are and as
engaging as the story is, I don’t think I’m ever going to take the time to
watch it again.However, that doesn’t
stop the film from being a spectacular piece of entertainment.

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About Me

I'm a geek, an atheist (who is also an ordained reverend), a peanut butter and jelly enthusiast, a man who shares the same name with a popular character from "Parks & Rec" and feels he can't live up to the awesomeness of the fictional character, was proudly banned from Reddit, an occasional Shakespearean performer, and a stand up comic.
Have any questions, recommendations or wanna share any theories on various movies? Email me at RevRonMovies@gmail.com and I'll talk about them on my new Q&A segment!